1143.—Mummers (Bodleian MS.) details
Notes:
On the far left a young mang with curly hair wears a plain robe or long tunic; he plays a lute or other stringed instrment. There are then, from left to right, a person wearing the head of a deer, a person dressed in plain mediæval (or “medieval”) clothes, a person dressed as a rabbit, and another perhaps as a bull, and on the right a woman. The mummers hold hands and perhaps are dancing. They wear long robes andsoft shoes or slippers, except for the musician and the man in plain dress, who I think are probably barefoot.
“We cannot greatly compliment our forefathers on the sport called mummings (Fig. 1143), in which men masqueraded as brutes; but it seems they were determined to have mirth, however they procured it. We, perhaps, err on the other hand, and may be too fastidious to be happy.” (p. 334)
